what is the best diet for my 8 week old bunny.

[Twobunns]

Hi,

I’m glad that this web site exists! Thank you!

Last Saturday we bought an 8 week old bunny for our daughter who is turning 12yo this month. He did fine the first day, but on Sunday, he had 3 runny poops, but after that he was fine. The sales person from the store where we got the bunny, told us that runny poop might happen due to the bunny adjusting to it’s new home. Well, everything went well until yesterday, Thursday morning when the bunny started to have a runny poop again and not only that, but peeing everywhere, when he was already doing so well using his potty to go  number one. The bunny seems to be happy, playful, and alert. He is eating his Timothy hay pallets, he loves his mixture of Timothy hay and alfalfa, and he is drinking water normally as he did from day one. The problem is that his poop is becoming irregular, yesterday after we cleaned his whole cage because of the runny poop and urine, his poop went back to normal, but this morning we woke up to see sticky poopy pallets and one more runny poop. I don’t know what we are doing wrong…. He has plenty of space to roam, his cage is an xpen cage, we also let him out of his cage most of the day to roam free inside my daughter’s room, and she spends a lot of time with him. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but on Wednesday we left the bunny alone in the evening for 5hrs, is starting to get darker sooner here in FL and we forgot to leave the light on. Then the next morning (yesterday), we left him alone again for about 8hrs. We couldn’t help it, we homeschool and yesterday was my daughter’s homeschool co-op. Those 2 days are the first 2 days we ever left him alone since we purchased him.  I don’t know if that is what affected the bunny somehow.

We really love this little guy! Can you please, help us?!?!

P.S. Yesterday, we called the store where we purchased the bunny and told us that it seems to be wet tail sickness that can kill the bunny if not treated with the medicine and vitamin drops they sell at the store. I don’t know if that’s true or just a scam to make us buy their products. :/

[Bam]

Runny poop is not good. It may be due to coccidosis, an intestinal parasite that isn’t uncommon in bunnies and hit young bunnies very hard. If the stools are covered in mucus, it could be mucoid enteritis. Both these diseases are deadly in young rabbits but can be successfully treated if caught early. I honestly think you should consult a vet. It’s always good to let a vet check a new household member. I think your bun might need some antibiotics for his tummy.

I wouldn’t buy any drops or meds from the pet-shop without consulting a vet first. Wet tail disease is just a name given to anything that may cause a bunny to have wet stools/pee on itself, it’s not a proper diagnosis. To treat a condition you need to know what causes it. A vet can tell by looking at the bunny and the poop f ex.

I’m sure you are not doing anything wrong, if the bunny has a condition he brought it with him from the pet store.

[redbunbun]

Is the poop actually diarrhea-like and runny, or just a little softer and more easily “spread” than regular rabbit poop? The latter can definitely be due to the stress of moving to a new home or a change of diet, but the former is a veterinary emergency with a younger rabbit. In either case, I would take your bunny to a vet as soon as possible, just to be sure. There’s no such thing as “wet tail sickness”, wet tail is a blanket term used for various tummy troubles in rabbits that cause mushy stool which stains the rabbit’s behind. Definitely don’t buy anything from that pet store without talking to a vet first – and even then, I’d steer clear of a store that gives such dangerous advice if any other pet store stocks the same goods.

What you’re describing sounds like a case of coccidiosis to me. However, we dealt with something similar when we first got our rabbit Sukka, and it turned out to be an illness called megacolon (or cow pile disease).

[Mimsy]

It’s definately not normal. I just got my bunny a couple weeks ago and she was only 6 weeks old. (way too young to be away from Mom) and we never had any runny poop.

I’d say the pet store has something contagious going on, so the little stress of moving to a new home causes it to rear it’s ugly head. As Bam said, you will need a medication specific for what is wrong. There is not a one thing cures all. I’d bring her to the vet and then bring the diagnosis /cost to the store, perhaps they will help with the bill.

[Author]

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